SHAN-HAI-CHING, THE CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS, transl. by Anne
Birrell, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1999.

This is an enormously valuable source for ancient Chinese mythology,
traditionally ascribed to the Yellow Emperor, and now believed by modern
scholars to be the work of a number of hands from the Third Century BCE
down to at least 6 BCE.

It is largely a relatively terse travelogue of hundreds of mountains,
their mineral resources, their amazing creatures and plants, the rivers
that flow from them, the many diverse and strange peoples that dwell
beyond China, mythological characters, rituals, medicinal remedies, etc.

The translator has provided some thirty pages introducing the text, and
more than seventy pages of notes on many of the mythological features
and characters mentioned in the text. One of the most significant
aspects of this translation is her rendering into English the some three
thousand names in this classic, enhancing enormously the mythic feel of
the work. For example:

   Three hundred and seventy leagues further east is a mountain called
   Mount Cherrysunny. There are quantities of scarlet gold on its south
   face, and plenty of white gold on its north face. There is an animal
   on this mountain which looks like a horse, but it has a white head and
   stripes like a tiger, and a scarlet tail. It makes a noise like the
   crooning of a human being. Its name is the stag-silkworm. If you wear
   some of it in your belt, it will help you to have children and
   grandchildren. p. 3

This text in this edition is a priceless mine, and it is hoped in future
this site will offer a more detailed glimpse of it.

This review was written on the 49th day before Imbolc, 2002 CE.



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